Thursday, May 28, 2015

Addressing gender norms is integral to understanding and ultimately preventing violence in both adolescent and adult intimate relationships. Males are affected by gender role expectations which require them to demonstrate attributes of strength, toughness, and dominance. Discrepancy stress is a form of gender role stress that occurs when boys and men fail to live up to the traditional gender norms set by society. Failure to live up to these gender role expectations may precipitate this experience of psychological distress in some males which, in turn, may increase the risk to engage in physically and sexually violent behaviors as a means of demonstrating masculinity.